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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Bringing the Bees Back for Breakfast

The phenomenon of the continued decimation of bee populations signals an additional burden for the already difficult times ahead. The pollination of edible plants and vegetation is largely dependent on these busy insects whose efforts impact on food supply, including those that are used for animal feeds that breed livestock for human consumption. It would not matter one bit if the population of politicians globally were the ones being decimated, there's more than enough of them to endanger global harmony. But the bees are the better breed whose quiet productive activities and sustained contributions are not bound by race, country, ideology nor political party.Members of the European Parliament have raised the alarm over the critical actions needed to save the world's bee populations, joining a growing number of scientists, non-government institutions, and citizen's organizations who have echoed the concerns of bee keepers all over Europe. The threat to Europe is very alarming as two of their largest beekeeping countries (Italy at 1.09 million hives and France at 1.2 million hives) have registered a bee mortality rate of 40% to 50%. These are countries with industrial scale bee keeping industries that have been reduced to about half of their normal production output. The threat is so serious that a name has been given to it: Colony Collapse Disorder.Decline in bee populations does not only affect the supply of honey, but also the much heralded European institution known as the Continental breakfast - which could become a bleakfast. Bees pollinate almond trees whose nuts provide the filling for almond croissants. The one Euro cup of coffee, as well as the orange juice would increase in price since bees pollinate the majority of coffee plants and orange trees. Bees also pollinate most types of plants used for animal feed, and if livestock producers resort to cereals, the price of milk would also escalate.Scientists suspect a kind of mite that suck the blood of bees as the culprit behind the bee mortality rate. Also considered are changing weather conditions such as the amount of rainfall in the last two summers. The Members of the European Parliament are looking at the creation of special recovery zones of arable land full of nectar rich plants that could help the bee populations to recover. Although a bit late, the beekeeping industry is happy with the attention obtained from the European politicians.

If the European politicians would busy themselves with this threat and work as hard as the bees they intend to save, the Continental breakfast will surely survive. However, if they take their normal pace, Europeans will be eating dead bees for breakfast - and the politicians will be eaten alive by the people because of it.

36 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Part of the problem is the climate change. This weakens the plant structures defenses such that it is vulnerable to mites; who in turn attack the bees. The culprit is really the unabated destruction of the ecological balance. The solutions being proposed are at the tail end of the problem. And you're right, the politicians, who are saddled with lobbies of interest groups will take their sweet time to come up with a policy decision. They really ought to be eaten alive. Cheers!

Brad, This problem has been rampant in my part of the US for quite some time. I believe they first related it to cell phones interrupting their flight paths and they not being able to find their hives, That since, I believe, has been proven false... I notice a previlance of bumblebees taking the place of the honey bee as of late. Of course they don't produce honey, but they do carry the pollen to the different plants. Another problem is that they don't show up as early as honey bees....evidently they hybernate and the honey bee comes out when it gets warm to find what sweetness they can find even in winter.....stay well..

I agree that the solutions being mulled are at the tail end of the problem. Climate change should be tackled hand-in-hand with this concern. The solutions are mere stop gap actions, the real solution lies in the greater cause of the imbalance created by man against nature.

Global warming has a myriad of effects on man and all other living things. The bees are just one of these. The real issue is to address the cause of global warming to stem the effects. However, these effects must also be addressed to prevent them from further damage.:-) --Durano, done!

Thanks for this additional information Tap. I didn't know that bumblebees get up later than the honeybees.

It's sad that this is happening world wide and very little, if anything at all, is being done. Of course there are other problems more serious that countries around the world are facing, but these sort of effects could be addressed by volunteers as long as the information is given to them about the benefits that may be lost when their numbers become critically low. Thanks again Tap. :-) --Durano, done!

I'm not much into honey. In fact, I'm not much of a friend to bees.I used to like catching them in bottles when I was a kid. I was an expert at it! Unfortunately, they never lived long afterwards. I'd throw flowers inside the bottles with them because I used to think that they ate the flowers when I was a kid.

Too bad to hear that their numbers are dwindling,but ya can't blame me for it! ;)

That's funny, when I was a kid we used to hunt bees and shoot them with paper bullets loaded on rubber bands, and if they were still alive, we fed them to the ants. We could not distinguish bees from wasps then.

Later on when we started studying bees, I came to appreciate them and made efforts to protect them.

Honey has a lot of medicinal and curative values. It's a lot better than sugar. Try it! :-) --Durano, done!

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About this Blog

Spitting vessels were part of the Asian cultures for many centuries, emanating from China to the Southeast Malay countries.
For all the many things that are difficult to swallow in this world that leave a bad taste in the mouth, here's a spittoon to expectorate it.

I am Durano Lawayan a.k.a. Brad Spit

My orientation is that of a management consultant. I am naturally drawn towards change for as long as it is sustainable and possesses real long term benefits. If we have to change by going back to basics like organic food, less transfat, zero carbon emissions, I'm all for it.

There are many things we have been made to accept, drummed into our brains since we were kids; that these were true, unchangeable, and permanent. Well nothing is permanent and anything can be changed. What was true before may be uncovered today for the phoniness that it was and is. I keep a questioning attitude and a persistent orientation, balanced by a positive outlook.

I love to laugh and enjoy life, and hope the pain brought about by what is wrong in this world is somehow diluted by this merriment.

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